Now practically speaking, these two hypothesis are already being worked out. Facebook already has its own frames it uses for links shared through the site, holding the browsing experience inside the site. It’s not hard to imagine a search bar being placed inside that frame. And Firefox too is not far behind since its very much in-line to use its browser capabilities to facilitate social networks.

“… in a bid to extend the reach of its new browser, Chrome, we expect Google to build OpenID and its associated friend connections into the browser; look for Firefox and eventually Internet Explorer to copy this feature. Facebook and MySpace will also likely build a way for users to surf the Web within the Facebook experience, retaining the social functionality. These connections won’t be perfect, but they’ll allow social networks to colonize communities and other parts of the Web, extending their experience out to other sites through the shared ID. As a result, in two years, portable identities will become a ubiquitous part of the online experience as they reach maturity“.

Now this really makes it for interesting debate whether users will opt for portability since privacy would arrive as a major concern and Facebook is already dealing with it. Also twitter’s OAuth (it’s an authentication protocol that allows users to approve application to act on their behalf without sharing their password) has yet to take off amongst prime users.

In all this talk of Firefox and Facebook, arent we all forgetting that Opera Mini has a HUGE HUGE leap in terms of bare numbers on the mobile front. Include OpenId and 'social' relevance into this browser and suddenly it will start to see an increase in numbers for the simple reason that Opera's Presto rendering engine is one of the only pieces of software that work on a magnitude of internet enabled devices.. from WinMo phones to Sony PSPs to Nintendo Wii's. All of these devices will suddenly become 'social'.

Not denying Opera's presence but going by the market share of Firefox in browser space (not forgetting Google's Chrome catching up fast) and Facebook in Social networking, the game is slightly tilted towards these services (only because they can easily cross-leverage on their existing user base).

But am expecting more from services like Opera & Safari to catch up. But will keep your info into mind for sure. Thanks for sharing your insights 🙂